Phone better than web for disgruntled banking customers

The financial services industry may have embraced the technology to support multi-channel operations but some of these channels are getting more love than others, with customers suggesting that it's often quicker for them to phone up to obtain even the most basic of information.

So says research published today by e-service specialist Transversal, which reveals that bank websites were only able to provide sufficient answers to just half of the 10 routine questions posed, with most heavily reliant on complex and static frequently asked questions (FAQ) pages.

Worryingly, almost a third (30 per cent) of banks had difficultly answering more than two out of 10 product and service questions, with just one company able to answer all 10, meaning the 15 million people who bank online in the UK potentially aren't getting what they want or need from service providers.

Email customer service proved equally disappointing. A third of banks still do not even offer the option to email in questions. For those that do offer this service, replies weren't exactly speedy, with the average response time taking 30 hours and just three out of 10 answered the question posed satisfactorily, meaning customers are still reliant on the other channels to fill in the gaps.

The situation is much brighter for those opting to call banks, with 60 per cent of calls now being answered within three minutes and some being speedy enough to pick up the phone within a matter of seconds. Peak times, such as the evening, demonstrated understandably longer call waiting times of between six and 15 minutes.

The fact that customers are being pushed towards using the telephone to deal with their queries fully shows a definite failure on the part of banks in adopting a cohesive online customer interaction strategy, according to Transversal.

"Banks have invested heavily in the internet channel - but our research shows that in the majority of cases it is very much the poor relation when it comes to customer service," said Davin Yap, Transversal's chief executive. "While previously online customers have had to cope with a lack of information we're now seeing more content - but this makes finding the right answer as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack. With the advent of Web 2.0 providing the ability to deliver a personalised service and improved interaction banks need to wake up to the changing needs of their customers - or suffer the consequences as they shift accounts."

This year's research by Transversal shows improvements in some areas but not others when compared to last year's findings. On the whole, more questions were answered by the banks, but it took longer to respond (30 hours) compared to the 22 hours reported in 2006.

Furthermore just 30 per cent of questions were answered satisfactorily in 2007 compared with 40 per cent last year.

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